The problem definitely had something to do with the timeline. I never use any of the additional settings in the Edit to Tape. Always best to use the timeline. Prior experience has shown me that using these options causes frame inacuracy.

I did a "render all" on the audio before I laid off. So, it shouldn't have caused any audio renders. Plus, the bar specifically said "rendering video." Never any audio. Also, the fact that the render times shifted dramatically downward when I deleted the hidden video elements and turned off video layers points to it being an issue with video.

For example, the first time it occured I had a line cut quicktime movie (DV codec) on video layer 10. The video layer was turned off, as I was using it to double check my online. I decided not to delete it *just in case*. Once I was ready to output, I noticed it wanted to re-render the whole darned timeline. Said it would take approx 6 hours.

Once I deleted this video layer and copied and pasted the video back on to the timeline, the render time went down to minutes.

That's about all the info I can give. If you guys figure it out, give me a hollar.